Bonding

Featured

Imagination and a book review

/ kidsstoryworld / 2 Comments

In this crazy world of lockdown, one thing that has blown and impressed my mind, is the children’s imagination. Pre-lockdown, I knew of course they had one. The time my now 3yo used a red wooden toy to draw some unapproved and uncommissioned artwork on the wall. When asked whodunnit “The gorilla mummy!” . Or the other day when my 5yo drew a picture of sun, sand and sea. It was a holiday we’d been on with grandparents. “Are you going to draw all of us and the buckets we used?” I asked. “No, we’ve all gone for a walk!”

Imagination helps eliviate the boredom, takes us to new places and helps us think beyond our four walls.

One thing I’m learning to do during lockdown is to relax a bit when it comes to play. As long as it’s not dangerous or harmful it’s fine. My “don’t touch this” or “don’t do that” or “get down from there” are starting to turn into “show me” , “don’t worry that’s what baths and washing machines are for!” and “that’s a great slide you’ve made out of the sofa cushions!” It’s by no means perfect. There are fab days with sunshine, books, successful home learning and skipping around feeling like Mary Poppins. Then there are the days of potty training toddlers leaving “deposits” in the kitchen, tantrums (I’d say split pretty evenly between them and me! 🙈) and dinners of fish fingers with a side serving of haribo and 10 billion hours of tv.

But whatever the day, there’s not one that goes by where I’m not impressed by the kids’ imagination! Even it’s the choice of insults when my eldest is shouting “YOU YOU YOU STINKY OLD RHODODENDRON!” in a fit of rage at his younger brother. Or when they make up their own games like “What time is it Mr Gopher? NIBBLE TIME!” or when my 3 year old tells people he had a lovely day and played cricket for most of it with his best friend from nursery….we hadn’t played with the forgotten cricket set in over a year and with social distancing certainly hadn’t been anywhere near his best friend. But imagination is a coping mechanism and gives us hope and alternatives.

Imagination comes in many forms and I’ll be writing a couple of blogs to explore this. As this article describes activities such as arts, crafts, science and messy play are important part of their creativity How To Nurture Your Child’s Imagination – Parents Magazine and I’m trying my best in lockdown to stick to 2 rules.

1. Mud and paint will come out in the wash

2. If it doesn’t, make sure you had lots of fun doing it!

Generally I’m relaxed when it comes to messy play, but even I struggle when at 8am one morning my 3yo son ran out sporting nothing but pants and wellies, got a watering can and started pouring water all over the lawn. To create muddy puddles. Cheers for that Peppa Pig. That said 3yo had a whale of a time. And it did in fact come out in the wash.

Another (not so messy!) way to develop young imaginations is guessing games.

Here are a few suggestions:

– Put things in a box, cover the box and the child can guess by touch or description what’s in there.

– gather some “noisy” objects eg. Pan and spoon, rice in a jar, and a half filled bottled of water. Get the child to guess what noise they’ll make.

– Put objects with different textures on a tray. Before touching them, ask the child to tell you what they think it will feel like.

– my love of books is no secret but read and read lots with them. Little Gym Chiswick suggested swapping the book character’s name with the child’s name. Eg instead of “Goldilocks sat on the chair” it could be “Megan sat on the chair”. This helps develop imagination and empathy.

– Play the “what happens next?” with stories so the child guesses before you turn the page.

– Ask questions about the book characters that might not be in the book. “What kind of a house do they live him?” Or “What’s their favourite colour?”

– Find a few objects in the house and ask children to create stories about them. If you like, write the stories down for them so they can just focus on the telling part. I tried something similar with my 5yo son and wrote it down for him and this was the result (though TBF his handwriting would probably have been better than mine 😆):

Would love to hear how you get on!

As mentioned earlier, imagination is such a huge topic it’s impossible to include everything in one blog (though looking at the length of this one, it would seem that I’ve tried 😆) so I’ll add a few more in the coming days.

In the meantime thank you so much for reading and please check out below for two completely different and highly imaginative books by the very talented Susannah Lloyd

Book Review

This Book Can Read Your Mind – by Susannah Lloyd and illustrated by Jacob Grant

Published by:  Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Said it before and said it again. This book should come with an actual health warning. My 3yo laughed so hard he choked up a green bean. This was on the fourth time of reading it. On the day we got it. The first time we read it we were all snorting with laughter – I think the most we have laughed since lockdown. It’s a very sensible and well researched scientific experiment to see if the book can read your mind. Just don’t think of elephants. Or elephants in pants. And you’ll be fine. My 5yo tried to think of pink gophers and cottoned on quite quickly but has still requested me to read it over and over! 3yo even tried to “read” it himself and shouts of “PANTS” followed by lots of giggles could be heard from his room. Just brilliant. It’s a book that very much makes the children feel a part of the story and that they are the cause of the main character’s (a very sensible scientist’s) reactions.

But as Susannah herself said be sure to have only strictly sensible thoughts. It’s a VERY delicate book!

The Terribly Friendly Fox by Susannah Lloyd, illustrated by Ellie Snowdon

Published by: Simon & Schuster Children’s UK

The Terribly Friendly Fox is about a fox. Who is invited to the Annual Woodland Creatures Ball…oh please don’t worry! It’s fine! He’s turned vegetarian so no need to panic. The guests are having a fine time with all the party games and a magic performance. There don’t seem to be as many guests at the end of the book as there are the begin though. Perhaps they were just worn out by all the fun and went home…

This is one of my favourite picture books. The children love it too. It’s darkly humorous and interesting to see the children work out where the guests disappeared to. Cleverly written by Susannah Lloyd and ingeniously illustrated by Ellie Snowdon it’s definitely one for the bookshelves!

And now for a real treat – a Q&A with the very lovely Ellie and Susannah – the imaginative duo that created this foxy book !

Q1: If Gerald were to give his own dinner party which creature would be at the top of his menu…oops…sorry I meant guest list of course?

Ellie: That’s a good question! I think even though Gerald loves ALL animals equally, there’s no denying he has a fondness for rabbits…mostly because he loves nothing more than a lovely leftover rabbit stew on a Sunday!

Susannah: There is such a fine range of tasty treats on offer at this party, so it would be very hard for him to choose. But I think, if Gerald is anything like me, he would save the best for last, so I fear it would be the mouse, if he could only get his paws on him…

Q2: What is Gerald’s favourite go to party game to distract his guests?

Ellie: He has so many but I think musical chairs is Gerald’s cleverest distraction as things (*ahem* guests) can get lost so easily amongst the fun.

Susannah: I think it would have to be his dazzling display of conjuring tricks. Gerald is very talented at sleight of hand, and disappearing tricks are his particular speciality.

Q3: If you were able to understand each other, and you could invite any animal to a dinner party who would you invite and why?

Ellie: Mine would be a hare…mostly because the Mad March Hare in Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time fictional characters. I think he would be a very bonkers and entertaining party guest! (plus he could run out of there very fast should a certain fox show up..!)

Susannah: My dream party guest would be a badger. I just love them so much. I am currently working on a new idea that features as many badgers as can possibly fit the pages. They are practically spilling out of it. I would love nothing more than to snuffle my way through a selection of cakes and pies with a very jolly badger for company.

Q4: What were your favourite books as a child?

Ellie: There are so many! I loved anything by Janet & Allan Ahlberg… ‘The Jolly Postman’ was a particular favourite. I’ve still got my original copy with all the postcards still intact and miraculously unharmed! Also ‘The true story of the 3 Little Pigs’ by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith was another favourite – a right old giggle!

Susannah: Oh yes! I loved the Albergs too, but my favourite was Burgler Bill. The best part was when he returned everything, including the policeman’s helmet and the stolen toothbrush.

The children’s books I loved the best were the ones where you got the feeling that the writer or illustrator was thoroughly enjoying themselves, being playful and having a marvellous time creating it. Picture books by William Steig, Russell Hoban, John Yeoman and Quentin Blake gave me that feeling. My favourites were The Wild Washerwomen and the How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen, which cracked me up as a child and still do.

Growing up I really loved all the Beatrix Potter stories too, which I think has very much influenced my own writing. People often mistakenly think of her stories as being sweet, but she had a brilliant talent for thinly veiling nature tooth and claw in sentences cloaked in civility. Her beautifully dressed animals, sipping tea in patterned floral cups often had very sharp teeth! I especially like this understated line from Benjamin Bunny when his father discovers a cat is holding his son hostage under a basket: ‘Old Mr. Bunny had no opinion whatever of cats’, meaning the cat was in VERY imminent danger indeed. or this one, from The Tale of Ginger And Pickles, where Ginger the cat has trouble serving the mice customers of their shop because it makes his mouth water so much: ’It would never do to eat our customers, they would leave and go to Tabatha Twitchet’s,’ Pickles tells him.

Q5: Susannah, do you have more fabulous book writing plans?

Susannah: I have another picture book out now, called This Book Can Read Your Mind, with Jacob Grant. It is a book that can actually read your mind! One word of warning however…it is extremely delicate, so whatever you do, just please make sure you don’t think of anything silly. I’m sure I can trust you with that!

My third book is on its way next year, this time with illustrator Paddy Donnelly. I am very excited indeed about it. It features my second favourite sort of beast (after badgers) but I think it is still under wraps so I will have to keep you in suspense as to what that is for now!

Finding our way and Book Review…

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

Anyone  who knows me knows how bad my sense of direction is! My dad could pick up a map look at it once and know exactly where to drive on an 8hour journey. My husband studied Geography and is also has a phenomenal sense of direction and map reading skills.

By contrast:

– on a school geography trip a good friend said she never wanted to partner with me on an orientation exercise again. We’d got lost multiple times and didn’t complete the task after I was “certain it was this way”….

– Friends would rather use a taxi than walk with me on one of my short cuts

– my last short cut on a 10minute (local) car journey took on a 40min route

– when I first told my then boyfriend now husband I couldn’t read maps he, with a degree in geography and infinite patience, said he would teach me. We were on the way to the Lake District. 15min after he trustingly handed it to me, he pulled over in a lay-by and took it back off me. We were lost. He’s a pretty patient guy but I could feel the exasperation.

– once I wanted to surprise my husband for his birthday with a restaurant he’d not been to. After pretending I was misleading him so he couldn’t guess where we were going, I ended up having to come clean, tell him we were lost and hand over the details so he could find the way and we could make the table on time 🙈

So imagine my happiness and joy when my 5yo son started showing an interest in maps! He’s pretty good at drawing them too. Sometimes he even tells me if we’re going the wrong way somewhere. Thankfully it seems he’s inherited his father’s and my father’s skills.

There are so many ways to help children learn to navigate and create an interest in the world around them. I’ve been to the charity shop and bought old ordinance survey maps and A-Zs which we enjoy looking at. I point out rivers etc to him. In the car on the occasions I know where we’re going, I’ll sometimes ask him to guide me left or right etc. These are fun games and I’m learning too!  I also got him some map books which we do together.

8AC5ED7B-89EE-449F-BDF7-660B5A71617B

In a world of technology we can think “What’s the point?” (Though I’ve even been known to get lost using Google directions!!) Well according to this article, map reading can help with maths, spacial awareness and visual literacy:

The Importance Of Map Reading

Orienteering also a fun thing to do and a great outdoor activity and good for imagination. My son draws made up islands with palm trees and X marks the spot. And later in life it can save a fortune in taxis and apologies for being late…(ahem…)

Thanks as ever for reading my blog! 💖📚

BOOK REVIEW

The Cockatoo From Timbuktu – By William A.E Ford, Illustrated by Ramile M. Imac

4B63B59B-1D04-4F54-BC0F-21AFFF26C29E

This is the charming book we were kindly sent by the author and it inspired the blog about directions and finding your way. It’s a beautifully illustrated rhyming book about Kian the cockatoo who escapes from the zoo to find his way back to his family in Timbuktu. As mentioned my son loves  maps (there’s a beautiful one at the beginning of the book) and learning about different countries. The story takes  you around the world  until Kian finds his way home. We really enjoyed reading about the animals in Australia and my youngest loves penguins so his favourite page was when Kian flew through Antartica. The book is a great conversation starter for young ones and there is a lot that children can learn from it including the fun facts at the end of the book! The perfect book for children who love animals and adventuring!

And now for a short Q&A with the lovely author William A E Ford!

Q1: Is there anywhere in the world you’d like to visit but haven’t yet?
A1: I love to travel and see new places. There are so many places I would like to go that I havent visited. I would say Japan, South Africa and Iceland are places on top of the wish list. I should also add Timbuktu in Mali to the list as well!

Q2: When you go there, if you could have any animal as a travelling companion, what would you choose and why?
A2: If I could choose any animal/bird to accompany me, I would have to go for a cockatoo. Failing that it would have to be a monkey to keep me entertained.

To read about more of William’s books and news please visit https://williamaeford.com/

Autumn Walks and Autumn Books…

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

Autumn is my favourite time of year. Even though it took me years to be able to spell (such a funny looking word isn’t it?) it’s still my favourite time of the year. It’s the season I remember most vividly as a child. On way home from nursery, kicking through piles of leaves that I swear came up to our armpits. Walking home from primary school collecting conkers then soaking them in vinegar or painting with clear nail varnish before threading with string for conker wars in the playground. I want my boys to experience all these memories and more (are conker wars still allowed in the playground???) To my joy the school organised an Autumn Walk for reception classes. They went to the local park, they looked for sticks and leaves and when I collected son he had rosy cheeks and his shoes and trousers were covered in mud (typically on the one day I forgot his karate kit so he had to do it in muddy clothes!) Best of all was his excitement from their adventures. Exploring, rolling in piles of leaves, muddy puddles, grazed knees, ruddy cheeks, warming up with a cup of warm milk or hot chocolate after an autumn walk… isn’t that what childhood memories are made of? 😍

Thanks as ever for reading my blog and happy exploring!

Here are our top Autumny kind of books for those snuggly kind of Autumny days…

1. That’s Not My Hedgehog- Usbourne Touchy-Feely Books perfect for little hands!

2. We’re Going On A Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury absolute classic rhyming story. My boys love this book…and crunching through muddy woods looking for bears!

3. Kiss Good Night Sam – Amy Hest, Illustrated by Anita Jeram

“It was a dark and stormy night on Plum Street….” outside the wind is howling and Mrs Bear is putting Sam to bed. He can’t go to sleep but what has Mrs Bear forgotten? This is one of my favourite books. Beautiful illustrations and makes you feel all toasty warm after reading. Perfect bedtime story for a cold Autumn night😍

4. The Wild Woods – Simon James

Love the illustrations and the story is simple but makes me chuckle every time. Jess goes for a walk with Grandad and tries to persuade him to let her keep a squirrel. Gorgeous book!

5. The Squirrels Who Squabbled – Rachel Bright & Jim Field Two nutty squirrels after the last pine cone of the season. A great rhyming book for teaching about sharing. Fabulous picture book!

6. Stanley Stick – John Hegley

My sons LOVE sticks. Eldest even had youngest pretending to be a dog and threw them for him to fetch. Which he did. Carrying them in his mouth 🤢

For less revolting ideas of things to do with a stick this book we’ve borrowed from the library is amazingly imaginative! It’s not just a stick. It’s a dinosaur, a spoon, a fishing rod and so much more! Lovely illustrations too.

7. Storm – Sam Usher

What can I say about this book? 😍 We were given it as a birthday gift for eldest. The illustrations are just fantastic and highly imaginative. It’s blowing a gale outside so a boy and a grandad decide to go kite flying, but can’t find the kite. While looking, they remember all sorts of memories. When they finally get outside there’s all sorts of adventures to be had! My sons were reminded of flying kites in the Hebrides this summer and I love the language and descriptions the book uses. Perfect book for the days where a storm is brewing and the wind is huffing and howling!

🍂 🍄🍂🍁🍄🍁🍂🍄🍂🍁🍄🍁🍂🍄🍂

Rhythm, Rhyme and Story Time

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

It’s been about a million years since the last blog on my page. Had so many thoughts and could write (or is that ramble) for hours on this topic…which it’s why it’s taken so long to publish this particular blog!

It started when I recently remembered listening to Peter and the Wolf when I was very young. We had it on cassette (yes that long ago! :-)) and had the book to accompany it. Each character has a different musical instrument attached to it. So I  looked for it on Spotify for the boys. Sure enough they had it on there too. It’s incredible – the boys loved the story and picking out the different noises and recollecting the bits of the story they’ve remembered. Music is amazing for the imagination and rouses so many emotions and memories. One of the ways we learn when we’re young (and sometimes now!) is through rhyme and songs. Think “Heads, Shoulders , Knees and Toes”…even my 15 month year old knows very vaguely where to point now. An example of music and learning – I had THE COOLEST times table cassette (I know an oxymoron!) when I was about 9… something along the lines of “Rock Your Tables” or “Times Tables Rock”..I learned most of my times tables through this (NB: I hated and was rubbish at maths). Then, when I nearly  knew them my parents gave the cassette to my friend’s parents as they mentioned their child was struggling. Not with my consent…Forget about helping others – I was devastated and cried so much that they got me a new one (this was a rare occurence…normally if I stamped my foot and cried a lot I’d get sent to my room of course but I think they consented as it was “educational”.) The new cassette was different, dull and not the same…I’ve only just about forgiven them for this.

Music helps understand patterns, language and develop sounds, vocabulary and memory. I can’t remember what I had to eat yesterday but I can remember where I was and what I was doing when I hear a certain song! Even memories of being at nursery singing “Do your ears hang low” (the clean version – not the rugby version…) My 3 year old is now coming home from nursery and is excited about numbers thanks to my wonderfully creative friend Gracie-May from DramEd. I’ve been trying for months to get him interested in numbers to no avail. A couple of sessions at the nursery with  songs, rhymes and Gracie-May and now numbers is one of his favourite topics of conversations!

An example music evoking recollection is when my little boy suddenly started singing Happy Birthday to his brother and then started talking  about caterpillar cakes, presents, Grandma and Grandpa coming…(it was his brother’s birthday in November!) He also recently borrowed the book “Wheels on the Bus” from the library and was “reading” through it by singing the lyrics. Of course to my knowledge he can’t read yet but anything that gets a kid to pick up a book or use imagination, in my books is a good thing.

Here’s a list of music (had lots of fun writing it!) that gets my imagination going and has memories of my childhood attached. Some of them I listen to with the boys now. That’s if I can get them away from Paw Patrol and PJ Masks!

  1. Peter and the Wolf– Sergei Prokofiev
  2. Fantasia Soundtrack – Walt Disney I remember when the film came out on VHS and I stayed over at my best friend’s house and watched it. Just genius.
  3. Bestiary – Flanders & Swann (a collection of songs that have animals in them) eg.  The Hippopotamus or The Gnu
  4. The Nut Cracker – Tchaikovsky
  5. Rachmaninoff – I have no idea where my fascination with him comes from but when I listen to him my imagination runs wild. Just incredible music.
  6. Scott Joplin – As a child I tried to learn the Entertainer on the piano and loved Maple Leaf Rag . Have no idea why but when I listen to some of his pieces I can’t help but think of Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin,
  7. Ralph Mctell – Alphabet Zoo (I was obsessed with this tape from the library and spent many car journeys listening to it. Over. And over. And over…am sure my parents must have been thrilled!)  Holly The Hedgehog and Impala were my favourite
  8. Evelyn Glennie – Evelyn Glennie is an incredible percussionist I went to see with my late father when I was a child. She’s profoundly deaf since the age of 12 and plays barefoot. At the concert I remember reading that the music was by someone (can’t remember who – think a Polish composer) who had based the music on tanks invading Poland in the World War 2. I sat there imagining these tanks and vividly picturing them in my head and the image has never left me.
  9. Now don’t laugh ( really mushy and oversentimental!) but this one was on the radio a lot and I imagined a train going over the bridge and for some reason made me feel quite emotional: The Seekers – Morningtown Ride At school years later we looked at the poem “Night Mail” by W.H. Auden and in my head for some unexplicable reason I can’t think of one without thinking of the other. This is the power of rhyme and music!
  10. Flight of the Bumble Bee Rimsky Korsakov – this one reminds me of doing homework. Or to be precise not doing homework…my father had a rocket computer game (press left to go left and right to go right, space bar to shoot) which I’d spend hours on pretending to do homework. Only heard the name of this years later. The computer version of this piece was much much more synthetic.

There are so many songs, pieces of music, nursery rhymes that I’ve got memories of and remember from school, I could go on forever.  What do you or what does your child think of when you hear certain songs and tunes? See if you can get your child to listen to a song/tune/noise and ask them what it reminds them of. Maybe bashing pots and pans can be elephants. Blowing bubbles in a glass filled with water could be fish…or hippos…is there anything in the house that can make a sound like a squeaky wheel? What stories are in the sounds? Get your children listening to music (anything at all – rock, rap (clean versions!), classical, jazz) Does it sound like an elephant? Can you hear thunder? Do they like the music why/why not? Can they draw a picture of what they’re hearing? Count the beats/taps/how many times they clap their hands. Play a game – make the first line of a song up then the next person has to continue it.

To finish, here are a couple of interesting articles which might be useful. Of course the main thing is that children enjoy the music and have fun…anything educational they get out of it is a bonus!

The Importance of Music – Toddler Development

Singing to children may help development of language skills – The Guardian

The science of why music improves our memory and verbal intelligence – Washington Post

How Music Feeds and Steers Your Imagination – Psychology Today

Children’s Poetry…

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

Children’s rhymes and poems can shape the way we look at the world when we’re younger and bring back amazing memories when we’re older. To give you an example, I honestly can’t walk past a fish tank or see a kitten without fondly remembering sitting in a classroom (think it was Year 1) and learning, writing out and illustrating this one by Ogden Nash:

The Guppyby Ogden Nash

Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.

A.A. Milne, Michael Rosen, Roger Mcgough, Spike Milligan all have special places in my heart and different meanings for me. I think the one that terrified me was one we had to learn for a school concert: Matilda – Hillaire Belloc it’s a bit like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” but much darker!

Children’s poetry is fantastic for repetition, vocabulary and according to one blog even physical coordination…

Why Reading Poetry is So Important for Children

It’s also great to create poems with children and get them thinking about how words can sound with rhythm. How they can be used to express thoughts and feelings or just fun noises!

A game that my 3 year old son loves it when I rhyme words and change the first letter to make new and sometimes nonsense words. He joins in which is fantastic (though we have to be a bit careful…listening to the radio he heard the name Jack Horn…he suddenly started shouting “Jack Horn! Jack Corn! Jack Forn!Jack Morn! Jack P…..” 😳 Luckily we were in the car so no one around and I managed to distract him by shouting frantically back “Jack Corn Jack Corn” and then change the topic which seemed to work)<<<<<<<<<<<<
y article that gives ideas for simple activities. I particularly love the suggestion of having a book around the house that kids can write in. I used to have my own blue notebook (would love to dig it out!) And poetry is educational, helps kids to read etc but most of all it's just good fun!

Children’s Poems <<<<<<<<<<<<
ouch and let me know – What was your or what is your child's favourite childhood poem?

Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

Honest Mum

Imagination….

/ kidsstoryworld / 3 Comments

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein

It’s so true. They say that necessity is the mother of invention but I believe imagination plays a big part in there too. If we looked at only what we know without curiosity and “what ifs” then we would surely never develop further than our own surroundings? For children imagination is so important for development, learning and of course fun!

It’s interesting to see how a child’s mind works. To give you an example, when we went to a fish and chip restaurant my eldest very excitedly started making loud chicken clucking noises. I kept asking him where the chickens were as I just couldn’t see it no matter how much he pointed. Throughout the meal he sporadically made the clucking noises followed by “look at the chickens Mummy!” He does have a random imagination sometimes but even so by the end of the meal curiosity got the better of me. I picked him up and took him to where he was vaguely pointing. It was a clock. Of some sailing boats “Look Mummy! Chickens!!!” Took me a few seconds but then I saw it….there are 2 “chickens” 😂

<<<<<<<<
, that he will always have this imagination and that real life doesn't end up getting too much in the way.<<<<<<<<
d a lovely article on why imagination is so important and also a piece on how to encourage a healthy imagination in children. After all without imagination we may never have heard of amazing people such as Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, J.K Rowling, A.A. Milne, Julia Donaldson and many many more! What an emptier world that would be!

1. The Magic of Imagination and It’s importance for Kids<<< a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/finance/family-matters/11393118/ways-encourage-child-imagination.html”>Five ways to encourage your child’s imagination

Book Review and what a week!

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

What another incredible week!

The incredible charity supporting mums, (Motherwell Cheshire, https://www.motherwellcheshirecio.com) have been kind enough to ask me to do a monthly blog for them. Checkout my first one here: Kids’ Storyworld blog for Motherwell

Then last week I read at Hanwell Library and thoroughly enjoyed it! The kids were fab and were lovely and patient enough to sit through Giant of Jum, Kitchen Disco and The Highway Rat.

This week I’m going to try and keep the storytime duck themed. Will be reading Farmer Duck by (the appropriately named!)Martin Waddell. This one was reviewed in a previous blog https://kidsstoryworld.com/2017/07/14/fridays-review-and-other-bits/ ) I’ll also be reading Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough. The latter is the latest addition to our book family and my little boy loves it!!! It’s been a relief to read something other than the “5 Little Piggies”, as he calls it. I keep pointing out there are only three but to no avail. Today wandering around the supermarket he kept telling me we needed bacon. Perhaps that’s where his other 2 piggies went? Anyhow I digress. Back on topic – book review below!!!

Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough

This is a great rhyming picture book about a duck in a truck (who would have guessed from the title?! 😆) It’s a really simple but fun story where the duck’s truck gets stuck in the mud and he enlists the helps of some creatures he meets. This would be a great book for earlyish readers to practice out loud and is also enjoyable for adults to read to children. Would probably say the age is 6 and under. It’s also part of a series of duck books. The pictures are colourful and everything you’d expect to see in a children’s book.

Party like it’s Friday….

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

Well I promised the book review of Kitchen Disco (by Clares Foges and Al Murphy) and what a book it is! It arrived on Friday and without exaggeration we have read it about 8 times already. It’s great for around 6/7 and under with so much colour, fantastic rhyming and a good beat. It almost feels like you’re at a party when you read it. It tells you to “Dance like you don’t care!” (Though my 3 year old keeps insisting “I do care Mummy!” – not sure if he means his dancing or mine! 😂)
It’s all about the party fruit have when everyone’s asleep. So “Swing your hips, shake your pips and let’s get all excited!” Such an enjoyable book that my son loves doing the moves to.

There’s also a website attached with a video  (link below) though if I’m honest the book is fun enough without it.

Kitchen Disco

Something for the weekend….

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

What a lovely week! I’ve been fortunate to have been asked to do a monthly blog for a wonderful charity, Motherwell Cheshire CIO so watch this space!

https://www.motherwellcheshirecio.com/services 

Also I’ve volunteered to do a regular storytime at Hanwell Library in London which starts on the 9th November. Very excited and looking forward to it!

We’ve also got a wonderful new addition to our book family (it was recommended by a lovely lady on a Facebook thread) It’s such a sweet amusing story I just had to share!!!

The Pout-Pout Fish – by Deborah Diesen

This is a story about a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face spreading his dreary-wearies all over the place! (Think we’ve all had those days! 😂) It’s not his fault…it’s the way he was born…or so he thinks! This has lots of repetition and rhyming, alongside colourful characters. It’s a great one for the under sixes. Really love this book and so did my 3 year old. Here’s the link below. Have a great weekend!

Pout-Pout Fish

Autumn book reviews….

/ kidsstoryworld / Leave a comment

So yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to read some Autumny type books to pre-schoolers at Sandhurst Library. Today I’m enjoying reviewing some of them! I took Cedric the Squirrel along and the children enjoyed cuddles with him. Here he is snuggled up with his leaves, conkers and a great book!


1. The Wild Woods – by Simon James

A beautifully illustrated and engaging story (Oliver loves this one!) about a little girl, going for a walk with her Grandad. Jess  decides she wants to take a squirrel home. She also has some very logical ideas on what to feed him and where he can sleep. Can she convince Grandad it’s a good idea?…

2. Pumpkin Soup – Helen Cooper

A squirrel, a duck and a bagpipe playing cat all live together in harmony making pumpkin soup. Each has their own job to do. One day, the duck decides he wants to do something different and it doesn’t go down well at all! This would be a great one perhaps for reception classes as it shows what the cat and squirrel think has happened to the duck after he’s waddled off in a huff. Children can have so much fun guessing and using their imaginations before the end is given away. Beautiful illustrations too. 

3. The Big Snuggle-Up – by Brian Patten

Personally, I loved reading this story. A scarecrow and various creatures all need shelter from the snow. Such a gentle beautiful book and so good for repetition. The children could “help out” with the story. Just wonderful! Would make a great soothing bedtime story.